Whatever else you might think about it, Boston City Hall is an improbable building. Call it a giant concrete harmonica or a bold architectural achievement, but to walk by this strange, asymmetrical structure in Government Center is to wonder how on earth it landed there. — bostonglobe.com
Fifty years after a groundbreaking competition, two architects look back at the project that polarized the city — and gave it a new lease on life
14 Comments
What a beautiful rendering! I love that building. The lobby space is truly inspiring. That said, the upstairs office floors are pretty awful to have to work in.
Well written article. But while Bostons' Brutalism is mostly thought of in terms of formal qualities such as it's materials: concrete; and a literal rendering of function, I think that Brutalism rough expressions of forms is very adaptable for environmental and solar design.
Back in the 60's Ralph Knowles (not to be confused with other architect Knowles in the article) was researching and writing articles on solar envelopes and making solar models at USC , the same years as the design of Boston City Hall . A link to Knowles solar aesthetic paper here
http://www-bcf.usc.edu/~rknowles/aesthetics/aesthetics.html
Later Glen Smalls 1983 Turf Town project in Los Angeles adapted the Knowles solar envelop to his green architecture approach.
http://www.smallatlarge.com/2010/07/turf-town-revisited/
A linear example is Small's Brutalist approach, this time adapting cargo containers to green architecture is his 1982 Hong Kong Project.
http://www.smallatlarge.com/2012/01/hong-kong-peak/
eric chavkin
I was in and out of City Hall at least every other day for three years. When I was a young pup working as a go-for in an architectural firm in bean town. I always found it an interesting place to visit.
It's nice to see the old drawings. Those are the ones that convinced us of this design, before it was built.
I had recently discovered Prokofiev's Concerto for Organ, Strings, and Tympani. As I looked at the architects' elevations and sections, I was hearing the trembling calms and the rich storms of that music. I thought it would be fine to concoct a visual treat combining these images (and others) of the building, with a recorded performance of the score. It hasn't happened -- yet.
City Hall of Izmir. not 1 to 1 but certainly inspired by BCH..
beautiful building - horrible site design.
What is the image the architects were trying to project with that building. What is the message? It's always looked to me like the forbidding headquarters of some evil corporation from a Robin Cook movie adaptation. Hardly the image of an open and approachable local government.
What is the image the architects were trying to project with that building.?
Well EKE. If you read the article the architects were direct and explicit of their aim of open government.. I think what they did was invert the typical and closed hidden in a box solution so that government process, in a functional, formalist sense. was made visible, ans thus more open. Also the idea of the interior courtyard pal..
If it looks like a fortress it is probably because of the reversal of internal functions now expressed on the exterior surface , like how an insect or lobster functions.
eric chavkin
What the architect SAY the image they were shooting for is very different from the result, if you ask me. That building is anything but open and engaging. Re: insects, lobsters. "I for one welcome our new insect overlords."
“You must remember this was 1962,” McKinnell said. “John Kennedy had just been elected president. And at least in young people, there was a tremendous sense of faith and investment and trust in the idea of government.” To capture that feeling, the architects sought to make their City Hall accessible and transparent. The design featured an open space in the center of the building that people could enter directly from the plaza, and external features — those large protruding bumps — showing the locations of the City Council Chamber and the Mayor’s Office.
EKE> Is it the concrete you dislike or the overall massing? or? I think that the architects were successful in expressing these ideas as expressive form. How would you of designed this? Perhaps as a village or a shopping mall kind of typology?
FROM GLEN SMALL
ERIC,
I WOULD LIKE TO POST A COMMENT, BUT I DO NOT KNOW HOW TO, WOULD YOU BE SO KIND TO DO SO FOR ME.
BOSTON CITY HALL AND ADJOINING BUILDINGS IN GOVERNMENT CENTER IN BOSTON WERE ALL THE RAGE WHEN I WAS JUST OUT OF UNDERGRADUATE SCHOOL IN 1962 FROM THE UNIVERSITY OF OREGON. BRUTALISM WAS THE IN THING. PAUL RUDOLPH WAS A HERO OF MINE. I MEET MILCA MY SECOND WIFE AT HIS LECTURE AT USC IN 197I. THE CITY HALL PRODUCED A GENERIC BUILDING SEEN EVERYWHERE IN THE WORLD. THE UCSD GEISEL (DR.SEUSS) LIBRARY IN JOLLA CA IS AN EXAMPLE.
I GAVE A LECTURE AT BOSTON CITY COLLEGE IN 1973 AND VISITED THE CITY HALL AND PAUL RUDOLPH'S ADJOINING BUILDINGS. WHAT SHOOK ME UP WAS THE BARREN PLAZA. NOT A LIVING THING ANYWHERE. JUST HARD SURFACES. IT LOOKED ALL SO NICE IN THE RENDERINGS BUT WAS AWFUL IN REALITY. MY BIT OF INVESTIGATION OF WHAT IT LOOKS LIKE NOW IS EVEN WORSE. A LOT OF CLAMMER TO TEAR IT ALL DOWN. I WOULD LIKE A CHANCE TO DESIGN A REMODEL THE PLAZA TO HUMANIZE IT AND TIE ALL THE BRUTAL BUILDINGS AROUND IT TOGETHER, BEING RESPECTIVE OF THE OLD AND KNOWING HOW TO GREEN AND HUMANIZE THE NEW PLAZA , TO GET POPULOUS TO HANG OUT THERE. IT NEEDS SOME SERIOUS THOUGHT, MAYBE A MORE ADVENTURESOME APPROACH. I HAVE ONLY BEEN THINKING ABOUT IT FOR TEN MINUTES. BUT IT IS A WONDERFUL CHALLENGE TO CONTRIBUTE TO THE BEAUTY OF BOSTON. WHAT SCARES ME IS THE ANGER MANIFESTED BY TEARING EVERYTHING DOWN. THAT WOULD BE A HUGE MISTAKE. THIS WAS A SIGNIFICANT ERA THAT NEEDS SOME TURNING UP, BUT NOT DESTRUCTION.
up until the kennedy era there was general optimism about the modern world, including all of the accoutrements of modern life. so modern architecture, as a symbol of the modern world, wasn't forbidding or evil but uplifting and celebratory! derelict old victorians were seen as architectural blight during that era, not modern buildings. only in the subsequent era has modern life come to be something to fear. and with that fear and retrenchment into ill-defined 'traditional' values and lifestyles has come less friendly associations for modern architecture. [/grossgeneralization]
the pendulum always seems to swing so far before it comes back the other way.
I guess the only thing about the barren plazza that is good is when one of the professional sports teams wins big as it is a great place to celebrate.
To Eric Chavkin -
Although the theory used by the architect was used to connote openness ... in fact, the building (in my opinion, a Boston resident) conveys just the opposite. If there is a gulf between the architect's intent and the perception of passersby, it can't be a function of the architect's education or the dulled senses of the passersby. Perception IS reality.
It's not just that the plaza is barren, although that is part of it. The feeling felt by workers and visitors alike is cold, distant, unwelcoming, and FAR from transparent. The top-heaviness of the structure is a metaphor for a bloated government that is supported by the legs of ... us? our money? When I look at the building, it makes me feel as though the government within is unapproachable. I don't celebrate the daring design, although I've heard that this building is in architecture textbooks all over the world.
From a usage standpoint, it's a mess. When someone tries to find a department , he quickly realizes that *anything* beyond the cavernous lobby is very labyrinthine and confusing. This is a terrible message for a governmental building: welcome to the bunker.
Even the mayor is well aware of the message he's sending. The building is not an easy one to fix (I'm told ... not an area of expertise for me).
Bostonians just love to hate the place. On a lighter note - it breaks up the monotony of complaining about sports. I think we consciously built a building we could bash for a few decades. It's our nature.
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